Michael Savage

"It's not my business -- hetero or homo or trisexual or bisexual or asexual. It doesn't matter to me. I think sexuality is boring, and I think it's very, very personal. Not an important topic to me." - Michael Savage

Michael Savage is a talk radio personality and ex-television host. He's best known as the host of The Savage Nation, a highly rated radio show.

MAGNETISM

Michael Savage's outspoken personality isn't for everyone, but he has a successful family life to go along with his lucrative professional status. Some media personalities might not be the easiest people to live with, but Michael Savage has proven that marital staying power is on his side. It wasn't always easy, though -- marriage came early for Michael Savage, as he was married at the age of 22 to Carol Ely in 1964, but a divorce followed soon afterward.

Only three years after his separation from Ely, Michael Savage married again -- this time for good. He and his current wife, Janet, have been together ever since, and they are the proud parents of a son and a daughter. Michael Savage's son, Russell Weiner, also holds the distinguished title of being the creator of the Rockstar energy drink. While Russell acts as the company founder, Janet helps out in the company's financial department.

SUCCESS

Say what you will about politically charged Michael Savage and his brash views on hot-button issues like same-sex marriage, illegal immigration and liberalism, however, it's difficult to argue against his success. As the host of The Savage Nation, he converses with 8 million listeners each day across 400 American radio stations -- that's good enough to put him third after Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity for audience ratings. Not only relegated to politics, Michael Savage also makes an effort to discuss other issues like food, health, animals, and the environment. Nevertheless, Michael Savage divides people on a regular basis. Witness the Freedom of Speech Award from TALKERS magazine in 2007 versus his 2005 inclusion in Bernard Goldberg's book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America.

Michael Savage can also take credit for phrases like "homicide bomber,” "liberalism is a mental disorder" and "compassionate conservative," which have been used in media circles and in speeches by George W. Bush. Not just a radio man, Michael Savage also had a brief television stint on MSNBC, and he's the author of four books that have cracked the New York Times’ bestseller list.

Michael Savage Biography

Michael Alan Weiner, better known as Michael Savage, was born on March 31, 1942, in The Bronx, New York. Work and education were the most important elements of his childhood and early years, in part because of the strained relationship between him and his strict father. Michael Savage completed degrees in sociology and education, and was soon teaching high school in the Big Apple. He was also an associate with Timothy Leary, for whom he served as a gatehouse keeper on Leary's estate.

As a testament to his interest in the environment, Michael Savage continued in school, completing a master's in anthropology and ethnobotany, followed by a Ph.D. in nutritional ethnomedicine. Research for his thesis sent him to Fiji where he studied the influence of Charles Savage, a sailor (whose name he would later adopt as a stage name). Through the 1970s, Michael Savage published four books, starting with 1975's Plant a Tree, and gradually shed his left-wing political leanings toward more right-wing views in the 1980s and beyond. This shift would also significantly change his career.

michael savage hosts the savage nation

After penning 18 books under his given name, Michael Savage published his first one in 1991 as Michael Savage -- a stark examination of affirmative action called The Death of the White Male. Three years later, he was intending to publish a new one as Michael Weiner called Immigrants and Epidemics, but it didn't make it to print because of its political nature. Frustrated, Michael Savage fired off a radio demo tape to 250 stations and, later that year, he was hired first as a replacement host on KGO San Francisco and subsequently as a full-time host for KSFO. Within four years, his daytime show, The Savage Nation, was the highest-rated among San Francisco men and women, and it became nationally syndicated by the Talk Radio Network.

Michael Savage's popularity only continued to grow, even though he had an equal number of supporters as well as detractors. He was often criticized by special interest organizations for his views on homosexuality and immigration, but he took a distinct anti-right wing stance in his support of the environment and animal rights. Michael Savage continued publishing books and earned a spot on NBC in early 2003, but he was subsequently fired four months into his television run for a prank call exchange that caused a viewer uproar for its discriminatory comments.

Despite the failure of his television show, Michael Savage's radio program continued to go strong, reaching a high point of 10 million listeners in 2006. Even so, his controversial rants continued to attract enemies. In 2005, he earned a dubious No. 61 ranking in Bernard Goldberg's critical book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, and in 2006, he drew considerable criticism from the Catholic church for criticizing their work with illegal immigrants. On a more positive note, Michael Savage did win the TALKERS Magazine Freedom of Speech Award in 2007.

Michael Savage pushed his career further in 2008, while also attracting more controversy; he released his latest book, Psychological Nudity, and also announced his intention to form a third political party called The Savage Nation Party. The latter decision came as a result of his disenchantment with the current political system. Controversy also followed Michael Savage after he insinuated that autism was a means of earning disability funding and not a genuine diagnosis. While it drew the ire of his critics, Michael Savage's overall audience didn't decline, and he will continue to talk as long as millions of people are still listening.